Origo Makes 3D Printing Child's Play

If you thought the latest round of 3D printers targeting hobbyists and DYI makers broke new ground in terms of ease of use, another project pushes the accessibility factor even further into the mainstream. This one is simple enough, its inventors say, for kids to use.

Now, if your kids are anything like mine, they could likely fire up a 3D printer, get the design software rolling, and start creating a lot quicker than I could, even with the models available today. But I digress. The idea with Origo is that it's being designed with a 10-year-old in mind. It's not an industrial machine or a hobbyist kit like Makerbot, but more like an appliance like a toaster or microwave. The purple bubble design (it reminds me of the old one-piece Macs that came in rainbow colors) will be as big as three Xbox 360s, its inventors say, and will cost about the same -- somewhere between $800 and $900.

You're probably wondering why we're telling you about a purple, plastic kid's toy -- the Barney of 3D printers. Surely engineers aren't going to become Origo users, except maybe to buy one for their kids. And Origo isn't really a commercialized product yet. Right now, it's a 3D printed prototype of a work in progress started by Artur Tchoukanov and his business partner Joris Peels, who began work on Origo as a university project and are now looking to get funding to bring it to market.

The Origo 3D printer's out-of-box appliance design is touted as simple enough for a 10-year-old child.

More than the product itself, the really important thing about Origo is that it signifies yet another stage in the so-called democratization of 3D printing technology. It shows that both the design software and the printer hardware are becoming so readily understood that consumers, not just engineering shops and manufacturing groups, are ready and willing to take the technology for a test drive.

"The few of us who are involved in 3D printing and other 3D technologies have seen the vast potential of popularizing this technology," Tchoukanov told me in an email exchange. "What is enabling the adoption of 3D printing is how widespread interaction and familiarity with 3D content has become. From 3D TVs to video games, from augmented reality ads to 3D cameras on cellphones, we're embracing the added dimension."

More accessible CAD is also fueling the evolution of 3D printers into the consumer space. Products like Google SketchUp, Autodesk's Project Photofly, and TinkerCAD are making it easier for consumers, enthusiasts, and non-CAD engineering users to design their creations. If a 3D printer isn't immediately accessible, they can still send their designs out to one of the numerous 3D printing services, like Shapeways and i.materialize (where Peels hails from).

Origo is being designed to interface with 3DTin, a free Web-based 3D modeling environment. The choice of software, and the fact that Origo is designing and building the unit from the ground up to cater to children, will set it apart from the rest of the pack. "We have a clear direction and drive -- other low-cost 3D printers do not," Tchoukanov said. "They're shipping a product in development, which is fine for the DIY market, whereas we're developing a product to ship."

"Developing a product to ship" says it all. Origo, which started as a master's degree project for Tchoukanov, is just a prototype, though one that has been put through its paces with kids, most recently at a TEDxKids workshop with i.materialize. Tchoukanov says he and Peels are pursuing funding, and they're not standing still on the design. "We're working on improvements and ideas to the concept. The goal is to offer a product that is relevant for home use, especially for children."

There actually aren't a ton of companies sitting at the high end. As I understand it, you've got a handle on two of the biggest companies in this space, with Stratasys and ZCorp being two others should keep your eye on.

There certainly is a ton of activity on the low end space however, and that's where it could get really exciting. People would have pooh-poohed the idea of an apps store or small machine that could hold your entire music and video library just a short decade ago. If any of the companies can get it right from a technology, price point, and market need scenario, the 3D printing market feels like it has that kind of break-out potential--IMHO, of course!

Wow, Beth, you certainly do know of many different 3D printers -- I didn’t realize there were so many available. I’ve been designing and prototyping with SLAs since 3D-Systems, Inc. came out with the first commercial Stereo Lithography Apparatus in the late 80’s. They’ve continually improved the polymers to improve against fragile parts (anyone ever have an over-excited manager break their first SLA prototype-?) and also improved to finer layer resolution until the day Objet was introduced and took the market lead in 3D prototyping.Objet is superior in layer resolution (down to half-a-thousandth, .0005”) and superior in strength of the prototype, but costs a bit more per unit-volume compared to the SLAs. I’ve made literally hundreds and hundreds of designs. But that’s where my experience stops, at 3D-SLA and Objet. I had no idea the growing low-end market rising up in this arena; it will definitely put a printer on very desk! Very exciting to imagine.

That's a great question re: the recyclability of materials. Not sure Origo is that far along, but it definitely gives them something to think about.

I agree that the price point on this is still high. Even at $500, it (meaning the prototype) still looks almost too "toylike" to justify that big pricetag. But it's all about progress and if they can get this thing to market, I think it could have a major impact on keeping kids engaged beyond the dreaded video games.

Just wondering.... I don't think I've ever seen this addressed in the articles on 3D printers. Is the "raw material" readily recyclable internally? I'm thinking if you give this to some 10 year olds, they can make something and then melt it down, grind it up, whatever, and make something else without the parents needing to buy stock in the raw material company. Something like Play-Dough for the iPad generation.

It's exciting to see so much innovation happening in the low end, DIY 3D printer market. I'll anxiously await seeing a Origo printer in action.

Meanwhile, the most common printer in this space continues to be MakerBot Industries Thing-O-Matic and the open source software that support it. Add that with Thingiverse for available models and projects and you already have something that 10 year olds can use TODAY?

Here's the proof: @DocProfSky has been doing 3D printing since he was 10!

The combination of affordable 3D printers and easy to use CAD design software has great potential. It would be great to engage young creative minds, watching them learn and grow, figuring out how things work, etc. And bringing their kids back to focus on something in the physical world would be welcome by many parents.

However, the price point for this device (not to mention the consumables) places this out of reach of many families. And the 10-year old target audience seems kind of low, given the relatively short attention span...

I like the fact that it takes something that will be a little more applicable than a video game and engages kids at a time in their life when something like this can be seen as cool. It's a little expensive now, but I can see high schools being able to afford something like this as opposed to be able to afford a full fledged high priced professional set-up.

Thanks for this, Beth! My 15 year-old has been through several phases of Lego, Roller Coaster Tycoon, World of Warcraft, and now Minecraft. Planing for a major in Electro-Mechanical Engineering, I can easily visualize the crates of components, vehicles, weapons, action figures, dragons and arachnids that would fill our house had this been available a few years ago.

I'm wondering if the manufacturer's comparison of their product to an XBox360 is an intentional one. Creating a collaborative design system that allows gamers to share designs over the XBox Live network would be a boon to Science and Engineering education alike.

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